Switching points of view in spatial mental models

In six experiments, subjects read narratives describing varying spatial scenes with more than one point of view. They were probed with questions about objects located in six directions from each character's point of view. Subjects' response times were consistent with a one place-one perspective rule. They seemed to form separate mental models for separate places and to take a character's perspective when there was only one relevant character in a scene, but they seemed to take a neutral perspective when there was more than one probed point of view, rather than switch perspectives.     

Social and solipsistic observer training: Effects on agreement with a criterion

The need to train accurate, not necessarily agreeing, observers is discussed. Intraobserver consistency as an intermediate criterion in such training is proposed and contrasted with the more familiar criterion of interobserver agreement. Videotaped observations of social interactions between handicapped and nonhandicapped preschoolers provided the medium for examining the criterion agreement of four observers trained against each type of standard. Observers generally failed to show high levels of criterion agreement whether trained to a within- or to a between-observer agreement standard. The results varied somewhat with the frequency of behaviors, however. Correlations between interobserver agreement and intraobserver consistency were variable but somewhat higher when interobserver agreement was the training criterion than when intraobserver consistency was the criterion. Correlations between interobserver agreement and criterion agreement ranged from — .16 to .89 during interobserver agreement training. Correlations between intraobserver consistency and criterion agreement ranged from — .23 to .99 during intraobserver consistency training.     

The development of beliefs about spelling and their relationship to spelling performance

This study examined relations among spelling performance and students' beliefs about spelling, including self-efficacy for spelling ability, outcome expectancy for spelling, and attributions for good spelling across grades 4, 7, and 10. Spelling self-efficacy remained relatively constant across grades. Spelling outcome expectancies for adult life and school declined across grades, as did effort and ability attributions for spelling success, with a disproportional decrease in ability attributions between grades 4 and 7. Self-efficacy was the strongest predictor of spelling performance at all grade levels; attribution for ability entered into the regression for grade 4 students, while outcome expectancies for school and writing were more important in grades 7 and 10. Cluster analyses on the grade 10 sample showed that students with high efficacy as spellers and high outcome expectancy of spelling for writing were the best spellers, with the highest performance reserved for those who attributed good spelling more to effort than ability. The impact of spelling instruction on developing beliefs is discussed.     

EXPANDING THE MOTHER-CHILD PARADIGM

Reliance on the mother–child dyad as the primary context for under–standing child development has caused fathers to be underrepresented in published research on child development and developmental psychopathology. In order to investigate whether this pattern was also evident in the work of future psychologists, we reviewed Dissertation Abstracts from 1986 through 1994. Results showed that fathers were the focus of significantly fewer dissertation studies (10.5%) than were mothers (59.5%) or both parents (30.0%). We argue that essentializing the mother–child bond is a political philosophy about the roles of men and women that places the discipline of psychology at risk for inadvertently becoming an apologist for the neoconservative political right. Specific suggestions for revising graduate training are presented. The social policy implications for continuing this trend into the next generation of psychologists are discussed.     

Predicting consensus about propositions concerning depression and antidepressive behaviour: Another cognitive dimension of commonsense knowledge

This study concerns people's ability to predict the degree of consensus which their peers would show in endorsing propositions about depression and antidepressive behaviour (ADB). Ss indicated personal preference for one member of each of 10 forced-choice pairs of statements and estimated the percentage of their present group that would endorse each statement. Actual and mean predicted percentages were compared and rank order correlations calculated. A high degree of agreement was found and this result was confirmed in a replication study. The finding suggests that people's cognitions about depression and ADB include a quantitative notion about the degree to which these sorts of propositions constitute matters of common sense.     

More historical dimensions of commonsense knowledge: Spiritual consolation for the depressed

Ss were given 15 propositions derived from the neoclassical canon of advice on spiritual consolation for the depressed and were asked either to rate the extent of their personal agreement with each and to predict the average ratings for the group, or to say whether they regarded each proposition as ‘true’ or ‘not true’ and to predict the percentage of the group that would choose ‘true’ for each proposition. The observed and mean predicted rank orders were compared within and between methods; all correlations were high, positive, and significant. The results suggest that people's higher-order ideas about other people's ideas include notions about the intensity of beliefs as well as about the proportion of believers. Contemporary developments of those propositions which a clear majority of the present Ss endorsed are discussed.     

Some historical dimensions of commonsense knowledge about depression and antidepressive behaviour

Ss of the present study were asked to endorse one member of each of 10 forced-choice pairs of propositions representing the main principles of the neoclassical tradition of thought on the prevention and treatment of melancholy and to estimate the percentage of the group that they thought would endorse each proposition. Comparison of observed and mean predicted percentages showed a high correlation for two of three groups. All three groups gave very similar mean predictions, which suggested that they possessed an a priori schema of the distribution of consensus regarding these beliefs amongst peers. The results are examined as an empirical demonstration of quantitative dimensions of common culture and of the continuity of classical traditions in the contemporary social stock of knowledge. The recent general revival of scientific and popular interest in the role of factors traditionally regarded as contributory to health and disease is briefly considered as a wider context in which the present findings should be viewed.